World of the changed 3 Noa in the flesh

by Vasily Mahanenko

  The captain pressed a button, and his voice was carried around the

  ship.

  “This is the captain speaking. All hands on high alert. We’re approaching the shore.”

  Chapter 20

  “I CAN’T ANSWER that question, Mark Derwin,” Verloven said stubbornly. “Ask me something else.”

  “What about now?” I pulled out a fifth core. It was hard to look at the poor old man. The conflict played across its face, greed doing battle with the knowledge that it could be punished for disclosing strategically important information. As soon as the navy ship had dropped me on shore, I’d taken off to go pick up my multitool — I had a handy little pouch to carry it in. Then, it was off to see the defender. I only had one question: how could I get rid of the dome covering the owner’s area? And judging by Verloven’s denial, it knew the answer but didn’t want to give it for whatever reason. Although, I knew the reason. It was greedy, trying to squeeze more out of me.

  “Even if you give me ten cores, my answer won’t change. That information just can’t be disclosed. Ask me something else, and I’ll be only too happy to tell you what I know in exchange for your cores. I just don’t want a penalty after the release is over.”

  The old man had clearly made up its mind.Knowing howr many cores I had in my inventory, it had decided it wrasn’t wrorth anything more than a heroic refusal, though the problem there was that it didn’t know about the ace I had up my sleeve. I had a flask full of pure dragon's blood. Lumping all the cores together wouldn’t have gotten you one percent of what I had in the container.

  “You know, I’d still like an answer to my question.” I pulled out the flask after hiding the cores. Noa had already enshrouded it on all sides, doing its best to absorb and scatter it.

  I got a kick out of Verloven’s petrified face. Noiselessly sucking down air like a fish out of water, it tried unsuccessfully to say something. Nothing came out. Suddenly, I got worried the old man would give up its game ghost, so I put the flask away. That worked — the defender was once more rendered capable of speech.

  “Give it to me!” The first thing it said wasn’t exactly what I’d been expecting. “You're not getting out of this location until you give me the dragon’s blood!”

  An invisible force threw me off my chair and pinned me to the ground. Verloven hovered above me, the expression on its face crazed.

  “You're no human, so you can’t do anything to me in this location. I'm the law here! Give me the flask!”

  The next demonstration of the function’s power was a hefty kick that slammed against my chest. Ulbaron held up, though it bent under Verloven’s force. Even my innards were shaken up if unwilling to shatter the way it felt like they should. But that didn’t stop the old man. It began pounding away at my chest and head, driving me into the ground. And the worst part was that I couldn’t move. The defender’s power let it do anything it wanted in the location — I wasn’t permitted to defend myself.

  For a couple moments, I panicked. Nothing came to mind for how I could stand up to the function’s power, though that quickly changed. While Verloven was going to town on my armor, I hid my named equipment in my virtual storage, waited for the function to rear back yet again, and hit the emergency evacuation button.

  Ulbaron fired me straight up at Verloven. The defender clearly wasn’t expecting the maneuver, which meant it didn’t have time to meet me with a direct hit. And while I still couldn’t move, the momentum helped — my arms and legs wrapped themselves around the old man. We toppled to the ground together. The old man didn't even have time to smirk, thinking I’d played right into its hands, before I began phase two of my plan. Dropping Ulbaron into my inventory, I turned my body temperature up to ninety degrees. It wasn’t much, but I thought it would be enough to clear Verloven’s head.

  It looked like it helped. The old man’s eyes widened in pain. One way or another, fire was the Achilles’ heel of all players in World of the Changed. There w^as neither protection from nor immunity to it. At least, with the exception of those who were willing to respawm to get that immunity — me, for example. Verloven tried to throw me off, but it didn’t wrork. My arms were still being held in place. Seeing that the defender was trying to fight back, I turned the heat up to a hundred and fifty degrees.

  The wheeze and unpleasant smell of burning flesh told me I was on the right track.

  "Submit, otherwise your function will be destroyed,” I boomed. When I was in elemental form, my voice was deep and rich, which was perfect for the situation.

  “You can’t destroy me!” Verloven was still putting up a fight, and I didn’t like that, so I turned the temperature up another thirty degrees. That was hotter than an iron. It was surprising the frail old man could handle that much.

  “I’m going to keep turning it up until you're a pile of ash,” I continued. “There aren’t any more aliens in the hexagon, so your death won’t impact the people here, and I'm willing to pay the fine as the head of the hexagon. But you won’t be showing up in any more releases!”

  To drive the point home, I got a bit hotter. That did the trick. Verloven’s ceiling turned out to be two hundred and thirty degrees, at which point it broke and croaked a reply.

  “Stop... Have mercy... I recognize you as leader... Stop...”

  The field holding me in place disappeared, and I pushed the old man’s limp body away. It flew over into a far corner like a ragdoll, staying there to whimper in pain. But that wasn’t for long. Soon enough, its normal expression returned to its eyes. Verloven, after all, was a god there in that location, and it might very well have won if it hadn’t decided to jump in and start kicking me itself.

  The old man sat up and glared at me like a wild animal. It was an unpleasant look coming from beneath lowered brows, even with notes of open hatred. But the game wasn’t going to let it attack. I was its boss, and the program couldn’t break ranks.

  “Okay, let’s go back to the conversation. How do I get right of the protective field covering the release owner’s location?”

  “I don’t know,” Verloven replied begrudgingly. It was obvious that it didn’t want to say anything — it did its best to push back and stay silent, though it couldn’t. I wasn’t even going to have to buy anything. Shouldn't have come at me!

  “Who does know?”

  “Its closest fighters. The personal guard. That used to be Villian and its group of mercenaries, but you took them out. No more Tsarter, no more personal guard. The owner hasn’t hired anyone else.”

  Interesting! So, Lirkun Po, who was waiting for me and two purple explosions, was possibly in possession of the information I needed. Does noa work on aliens?

  Villian, are you out there? I need you! If anyone knew the answer to my question, it was the green-skinned alien. Actually, no, it definitely

  knows.

  You can’t resurrect non-natural release players with noa.

  Use the relic from the Last Chance dungeon.

  My stomach sank when I saw the message. And it wasn’t even because the game wasn’t letting me bring the alien back. No, it was because I was being had yet again. If it wasn’t Villian taking me for a ride, it was Lirkun. It probably wants me to bring it that damn relic so it can resurrect its boss, get rid of its penalties, and restore Tsarter. But on second thought, something didn’t make sense. Villian had been looking for the dungeon long before I sent it off into nothingness.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about what’s in Last Chance?” I asked Verloven. “Give me everything you know about it.”

  “Last Chance is a dungeon created for the players that come with the game. They can’t beat it themselves, so they have to find natural players from the hexagon. And that’s why the guards in the dungeon aren’t monsters or programs; they’re actual fighters, professionals. Their job is to make sure nobody gets to the relic. And there’s a network of traps to keep it safe, too. You asked about a weapon, and I told you where you can find one — you can get one
off the fighters there. Once they’re dead.”

  “You need the relic to respawn?”

  “Yes. And it doesn’t matter who you’re respawning. If the being spent the slightest amount of time in the game, you can summon it and make it a player. There are no limitations.”

  “So, if we take the son of the release’s owner, if it was in the game and happened to die, it could be brought back?”

  “Of course. Like I said, there aren’t any limitations. The relic bonds to a player and sticks with them even after the release is over. It only has five charges, so there isn’t a ton you can do with it, but whoever’s lucky enough to get their hands on it leaves the game forever. They buy their freedom.”

  “What do you mean? You can leave the game? But you said the relic can respawn any player — what if you want to bring someone back who already left the game?”

  “In that case, it’ll be a copy with the same knowledge as the original, only with a different consciousness. And yes, you can leave the game. For example, if you give the creator a few kilograms of dragon’s blood, it’ll give you your freedom. That’s why I attacked you — it was my chance to buy my way out of the game.”

  So much started to make sense. The old man’s behavior, why Villian wranted me to join the group in our release, what Lirkun had up its sleeve. The latter was suddenly crystal clear. I was positive there would be an enormous crowd of the owner’s players waiting for me by the entrance to the dungeon. Perhaps, they would let me in, though getting back out would be much more of a challenge. There would be a battle I wasn’t sure I could survive. Presumably, the aliens would think up some dirty trick or other.

  “What even is dragon’s blood? Is it really the blood of an ancient creature scattered across the planets?”

  “No, that’s a story the release owners like to propagate. It’s actually normal metal that’s something like your mercury, only a source of unlimited energy and planetary life. Noa is a reaction the environment has to dragon’s blood. If you take how oxygen always tries to oxidize metal, it’s the same way with noa and dragon’s blood. Only as soon as noa appears, you get life. The two processes go hand in hand. Without the blood, noa can only last about twenty thousand years on a planet, after wrhich it disappears immediately and forever. Life stops then, as well. At least, the creatures on the planet stop reproducing — immortals couldn’t care less about noa. That’s why the game is only rolled out on planets where life is at its peak. There’s no point taking it somewhere the locals are still running around with sticks and stones, as that could be the fallout from a previous release. Just take this planet — you became an absorber, so life won’t disappear right after the release. Humankind will still have another twenty thousand years before they have to leave. Though they will have to. A digger already found deposits of blood, and the mining operations are going to start soon.”

  One hadn’t been lying — humankind really did have just one more week. That w^as bad.

  “Okay, so you can’t tell me how to get rid of the dome. I already know where the owner is, and I know how to kill it, too. You’re useless, Verloven! It’s impressive how much you know, but it’s all just... Actually, there is one thing. How7 are there such high-level players on Earth? Where did they find that many people to kill?”

  “Levels and your main equipment stick with you from release to release. There’s a limit to how high your level can be on a specific planet, which is why nobody goes any higher. What doesn’t carry7 over is attributes and skills. You have to build them up from scratch every7 time. Actually, Elhar Gee, the player at the top of the owner’s player ranking, is well beyond level 10,000, it’s just that it’s held way back in this release. The fact that you’ve gotten pretty7 advanced means the owner’s players have been able to unlock a few7 of their levels, in fact. If Villian Po were still alive, it would be well in advance of everyone else.”

  Ah-ha! It’d been wondering why such experienced players were so low, and w7hy I’d been able to hack them.

  “So, named item levels stay with you, too? How7 do players use them

  later?”

  “There’s a discount system for leveling-up that kicks in if you performed wTell during a release. The number of free points you have to use for each attribute after level 40 drops significantly. But all that’s in the help section. As the head of a hexagon, all you have to do is wTant to get it — no point tiring me out with these pointless conversations.”

  A help section? Where? I had to poke around and even ask Verloven before I finally found the button with the question mark. Tapping it, I smiled sadly. Where were you two months ago? I could have avoided so many problems...

  “Can I take personified noa and turn it back into a regular player? Without a rainbow pearl?”

  Verloven took a long time to answer. From what I could tell, it was looking for a way to avoid answering directly, only the question was too clear and specific to get around.

  “Yes, you can. You need access to the enhancement section of the store, where you can buy a transformer. It can change anything into a player. A regular one, too, without any limitations.”

  “So, it repeats the scan of the creature and regenerates it?” I guessed, and Verloven nodded confirmation. Obviously, I didn’t have access to that section of the store, which wTas where the explosions were sold, too. But the old man did. It confirmed that with a nod, as well. The problem was how expensive the transformers were — they cost twenty billion coins each. Becommg a player is expensive these days.

  “You know how much blood I have. I need four transformers, and I can trade it all for them. All my supplies. What do you say? Is your freedom worth that much?”

  Verloven swTallowred and nodded quickly. Before I could so much as look around, four plastic tubes had appeared in the old man’s hand.

  “You just shake and break them when you’re ready to use them. The game does the rest.”

  “We need to test it out. You could be giving me a bunch of trash, and you’ll make a break for it as soon as I hand you the blood. No, we need to give it a try.”

  “The game can — ”

  “No, let’s not get it involved. The deal is agreed, and if everything goes well, you’ll get your cores and flask. I don’t need them. Come on, let’s go see how this works for Grust and the other two.”

  Better safe than sorry. It turned out to be just too simple to become a player again, especially given how I had yet to hear anything about that. There wasn’t even anything about it in the instructions they gave you as personified noa.

  My former partner wasn’t far away. Along with Milady and Little, he was enjoying his newfound freedom, walking through the parks in Verloven’s residence. I’d already sent the trio 150 levels each, so they’d spent their billions on leveling-up and new equipment. All of them were sporting named items.

  “Oh, Mark, you’re still here?” Grust hugged me like I was family.

  “Why is the owner still alive?” Milady asked sarcastically. “Lost

  your nerve?”

  “He’s thinking of you, dummy,” Grust said. “As soon as he kills it, the game will be over for us.”

  “That’s actually what I’m here to talk about. Here.”

  “What’s with the dildo?” the guy asked with a frown, though he took it from me.

  “Shake it and break it. We need to see what happens.”

  “Is it some kind of light?” Little asked. “Can I try?”

  “In a minute. Right after Grust — we can lose him,” I said. “Come on, what are you waiting for? Let’s go!?”

  “How many do you have?” Grust asked hoarsely when he’d had time to read the description. “Maybe, Milady should...”

  “Babe, what are you talking about?” Milady could tell something was going on.

  “I have enough for everyone. First, I want to see how it works. Grust, you’re holding up the show — the owner’s waiting.”

  That was the final straw, and my partner followe
d the instructions. With a crack, the stick broke, and Grust dropped to his knees with a groan.

  He was beyond screaming already. Milady threw herself at her man, looking to hug him, only there was nothing to hug — Ulbaron was empty. All that was left was a blueish mist of noa the wind quickly carried away.

  “What did you do?!” Milady was furious, slamming fists into me. A vibroknife flashed; Valkyrie’s trigger clicked. The woman was on the attack, ignoring the difference in levels and equipment, and it took all my self-control to keep from tossing her away. That would have crippled if not killed her.

  “It worked!” came Grust’s happy cry a couple meters away from where he’d disappeared. The game was almost done printing out his arms. Interestingly, his level was the same, though his clothes hadn’t made the transition with him — the guy was completely naked.

  Player Grust Kilvan. Status: active, level 151.

  And nothing about how he was personified noa. No, in front of me was a regular player, one of a hundred thousand other humans and nonhumans. My sense for noa also gave me nothing. Milady and Little were shimmering, while Grust wasn’t. It really did work, damn it! Milady pulled herself off me in stunned silence, staring at her man in confusion. She was clearly looking for an explanation, but it wasn’t the time.

  “Okay, you both need to go through the same thing.” I held out two more sticks, and Grust grabbed them so quickly it felt like he thought I might change my mind. Still, he had a question for me.

  “What about you? Do you have one for yourself?”

  “Yes, don’t worry,” I replied, holding up the fourth.

  “Could someone just tell me what’s going on?” Milady exploded.

  “Have I held up my end of the deal?” Verloven couldn’t have cared less about what the players were going through. It just wanted its precious so it could get its new life on track.

  “Yes, indeed,” I replied, pulling out the cores and flask. The old man’s hands shook as they received the blood, though I really didn’t think much of it. I was holding a path to guaranteed survival. I was going to stay on Earth after I took out the owner. Rebuilding the planet was far better than wandering the dark nothingness.